Not Too Sweet: Rethinking Your Dessert Menu

Gone are the days of traditional cheesecakes and cookies. It’s time to spice up that after-dinner treat in your restaurant.

by: Jaime Bender

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With new flavor trends on the scene, it's probably time to up the ante on your dessert menu. (Photo: uzhursky/Shutterstock)

The New York-style cheesecakes and banana splits of the traditional dessert menu have had their day. The coveted after-dinner treat is undergoing a makeover of sorts, a reflection of consumers’ increasingly daring and globally influenced tastes. More and more, restaurants are adding unconventional ingredients to their desserts, tending toward salty, sour and savory flavors and away from strictly sweet.

“In recent years there has been a real turn towards adding new dimensions of flavor,” said Evelyn McLean, co-owner of Chocolate Chip of the Month, a Los Angeles-based online cookie subscription business.

“Just look at the popularity of ‘umami’ – roughly translated as ‘earthy’ from Japanese. I think one of the big drivers of that change is that people’s palates are coming into contact with foods from different regional cuisines, foods with combinations of tastes we’re not used to. Global influence has done a lot to change food culture in the U.S., and that is certainly true for desserts; hence, olive oil cake and pink peppercorn ice cream.”

Pink pepper – what? Indeed, the boundaries have been broadened when it comes to desserts, and for you, the restaurant owner, that means it might be time to update your dessert menu. Here are some creative ways others have climbed aboard the trend.